The Legend of the Mighty Hunt
by theHuntgoeson
Summary: Gene Hunt is already a legend, but legends evolve over time. How might the legend that is Gene change over a thousand years? What might future generations get right, and what might they get wrong?


**A/N: I don't own Ashes to Ashes, Monastic, Kudos and the BBC are the lucky ones. Dr Dryasdust is aptly described by Wiki as "an imaginary and tediously thorough literary authority cited by Sir Walter Scott to present background information in his novels".**

**I wrote this story many months ago, for sailormoon1982's fairytale challenge, but the continuing series of horrible things besetting my existence have precluded my posting it until now. When sailormoon1982 PM'd me with an invitation to enter the challenge, the best I could do was to get out and dust down this idea, which first hit me about two years ago, but which I did not write up at the time due to eyesight problems. It isn't actually fairytale at all, more a look at how legends can change and evolve - and become inaccurate - over time. A major influence in this totally barmy, off-the-wall story was the Babylon 5 episode "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars", in which many records of the past are lost in the Great Burn of 2762, and centuries later, the heroes of Babylon 5 have become legendary, almost religious figures. So, how might the legend of Gene Hunt and his companions change over a millennium?**

**I don't know what anyone will think of this, but I had fun writing it. As always, reviews would be welcome! **

**N.B.: I wrote this story _before_ it was first announced that the University of Glamorgan would be publishing their marvellous study "Life on Mars: From Manchester to New York"!**

_Paper given by The Rev. Dr Jonas Dryasdust, F.A.S. at the fourteenth biennial International Congress on Literature and Folklore, University of Hyde, 2981._

Ladies and gentlemen, it is a truth universally acknowledged that every nation must have its folk heroes. Some, like King Arthur, are figures of authority; others, such as the Swiss Tell, the Japanese Yoshitsune, and our own Robin Hood, are rebels against an unjust authority. Common to both groups is their use of their powers to protect those weaker than themselves. Such characters generally originate in a historical figure, to whom their own and subsequent generations attribute whole cycles of stories which submerge fact beneath a welter of romance. Stories which frequently begin in an oral tradition are amended and enlarged with each retelling, and are eventually preserved in a permanent form when they are written down.

History tells us that such legendary figures are created from the people's need for a hero to defend them in times of danger and injustice. King Arthur shielded his subjects from the Saxons. Robin Hood protected the common folk from the tyranny of Prince John, the Sheriff of Nottingham and their hirelings. The purpose of my paper is to explore the origins of, and the legends surrounding, a later folk hero, created of the people's disillusion with an inept Force which all too often oppressed where it should have protected.

So far as we can tell, the legend of the Mighty Hunt originated in the late twentieth or early twenty-first century. It is known that at that time, the people's dissatisfaction with their guardians of the law was high. On the one hand, the Force was seen as being so hidebound by rules and restrictions that it was unable to protect the law-abiding majority from a growing criminal minority which was becoming increasingly insolent and bold. On the other, the Force was riven with scandals, and was despised for its violence and corruption. There was a widespread yearning for "the good old days", when the people's guardians were feared by criminals and trusted by the innocent. Amid the chaos and uncertainty of the time, the legend was born of an old-fashioned "copper's copper" and his Shining Company. Invincible yet all too human, difficult, stubborn, obnoxious, misogynistic, reckless, arrogant, yet, good, kind, decent, incomparably courageous, flawed yet able to improve through absorbing the wisdom of his companions, this was a hero created by the need of the people, one who proves to be, not a mere mortal, but an eternal defender of the souls of the fallen.

The original tales of the Hunt are divided into two separate epics, the Northern Saga, which consists of sixteen stories, and the Southern Saga, in which there are twenty-four stories. The Northern Saga gave rise to a number of variants which depict the Hunt and his company in other lands, including the countries then known as America, Russia and Spain. These variants include a number of stories not present in the original Northern Saga, and the stories which do relate directly to the Northern Saga contain many important differences. This paper does not deal with the Foreign Sagas, for which I direct today's audience to my treatise, _Foreign Variants of the Northern Saga of the Mighty Hunt_, published by Hyde University Press, 2977.

The original thirty-six stories also inspired the substantial body of later legends concerning the Hunt, which all derive from the mythological sub-genre known as Fanfic. My paper on Fanfic and its role in folklore, given at the last biennial Conference in 2979, enumerated an astonishing total of over two thousand Fanfic legends of the Hunt. Many more may exist, which still await rediscovery.

In addition, a subset of the Northern Saga, known as the Tomfics, has only recently come to light and awaits full investigation. A preliminary study indicates that this subset consists of at least four stories, which, like a number of the Fanfics, take place during the eight years which elapse between the Northern and Southern Sagas. I am currently researching the Tomfics with the intention of publishing a full report at the next conference in 2983.

The historical basis of the legend of the Hunt is open to question. Whilst the majority of folk heroes, such as King Arthur, Tell, and Robin Hood, are based on historical personages, there is no such assurance for the Hunt. The legend tells us that the Hunt lived on the earth as an officer in the mid-twentieth century, and that he died violently but returned to life to defend his people from the forces of evil. Unfortunately, records from that era are incomplete and it is not possible to conclude whether there was a genuine officer named Hunt whose death formed the basis of the legend. If the Hunt's defeat of death is part of the original sagas and not a later addition, it gives the legend a quasi-religious slant conspicuously absent from other folk-hero legends of its genre. Indeed, as the Hunt is repeatedly described as tall, strong, blue-eyed and golden-haired, and one of his foremost adversaries was known as the Summers, it is quite possible that his legend is a throwback to the ancient cult of the sun-god who sets at night and rises again in the morning, and who fights an eternal battle with the forces of winter and darkness. An alternative theory suggests that, as he is also frequently described as a lion, and another of his chief adversaries was the Wolf, the legend of the Mighty Hunt may have arisen from an ancient cult of animal worship.

In both the Northern and the Southern Sagas, the Hunt is accompanied on his adventures by a companion who claims to have journeyed to him from another time: in the Northern Saga, Tyler the Wise, and in the Southern Saga, Alexandra the Fair, also known as the Bolly. In addition, at the very end of the Southern Saga, after the departure of Alexandra the Fair, mention is made of a third companion, a shadowy figure who in the Saga is known only as the iPhone, but who in the Fanfic legends goes by a wide variety of names.

This feature of the legend may have derived from the famous Sagas of the Unnamed Doctor, which arose at the same time or slightly earlier, and which are concerned with a traveller through time and space who shares his adventures with a succession of young companions, many of whom hail from other worlds and eras. As one of the Doctor's best-known companions shares the name Tyler with the Hunt's companion in the Northern Saga, it is possible that the device of "the faithful companion" may simply have been transferred from one legend to the other, at some stage in the evolution of the legend of the Hunt.

However, the theory that the legend of the Mighty Hunt originates in the sun-god cult may be strengthened by the fact that both of his companions appear to have been sent to him as divine protectors and guides. Neither is allowed to remain with him for long, perhaps because, Lohengrin-like, they must return whence they came once their mission is completed. Tyler the Wise redeems the Hunt from corruption, checks his rashness on many occasions, and saves his life by a cunning ruse when they are captured between ground and sky by the dreaded Crane. Alexandra the Fair is on one occasion described as a guardian angel, and it is she who rallies the Hunt in time for him to win his final, decisive battle with the Keats.

Alexandra's sobriquet "the Fair" may well refer to her fair-mindedness as well as to her famous beauty. The Southern Saga frequently describes how she and the Hunt disagree over the conduct of their work, and how often she is proved right, to the Hunt's chagrin. She, like Tyler the Wise before her, improves the Hunt in the course of the Saga: in one variant of the final tale, he acknowledges that she made him better than he was.

It is a matter of much debate, as to whether Alexandra the Fair, like Tyler, was merely the Hunt's companion-in-arms, or whether she was also his lover. The Southern Saga describes their frequent quarrels and on one occasion his rejection of her advances, but also relates moments of deep, unspoken True tenderness between them. It also describes their final parting and her departure into eternal light. However the majority of the Fanfic legends depict the two as passionate lovers, and in many of them she subsequently returns to the Hunt, or else never leaves him. The Fanfic legends are in disagreement as to whether or not the Hunt and Alexandra married and whether they had children. Most agree that if they did, there was a son, named Sam in honour of Tyler the Wise.

Many eminent scholars have argued that the portrayal of the Hunt and Alexandra as lovers is entirely a feature of later corruptions of the original sagas. I must disagree. In all such legends, in whatever land they originate, it is obligatory for the hero to have a lady-love. Just as King Arthur must have his Guinevere, Hood his Marian, Yoshitsune his Shizuka, and Tell his Hedwig, so the Hunt must have his Alexandra. The only difference between Alexandra and the likes of Guinevere and Hedwig, is that where they wait at home for their men to return from their adventures, Alexandra, born in a more enlightened age, fights at the Hunt's side as his equal.

Even the episode in the third tale of the Saga in which the Hunt rejects Alexandra's advances, can be taken as an expression of his love for her: despite his uncouth language, which often compares her to a bottle of champagne or to a baker's produce, the Hunt is ever careful of his lady's honour. And the account in the penultimate tale of their dance of courtship, is eloquent proof that their love was all the deeper for remaining unspoken. My case rests.

The Hunt's chief retainers in both Sagas are the Carling and the Skelton, assisted in the Northern Saga by Anne the Cartwright and the redoubtable warrior-woman Phyllis, and in the Southern Saga by Sharon the Granger and Viv the Desk-Keeper. The etymology of their names hints at the roles of these characters as servants to the Hunt. "Carling" means "champion" and links to the Saxon word "housecarl", which denoted a free man who served voluntarily as an armed warrior in the household of a king. The Carling's many battles by the side of the Hunt, as his most faithful liegeman, are well documented. So are his jealous struggles with Tyler the Wise, which in this context may have been inspired by his dread that Tyler might supplant him as the Hunt's favoured warrior. The name "Skelton" is very ancient in the North of England and may derive from the pre seventh-century Old English "scylf", denoting a shelf or dry area of land surrounded by water meadows or fens, and "tun", denoting an enclosure or settlement. The suggestion of dryness surrounded by water may be a reference to the Skelton's well-known slowness of wit: it is possible that he was the Hunt's court fool, much like Robin Hood's Shadow-of-a-Leaf.

The naming of the Lady Anne as the Cartwright is more obscure: it is unlikely to refer to her care of the Hunt's noble bronze chariot, known as the Cortina, because it is known that none but the Hunt himself ever drove it. As she eventually became the chosen beloved of Tyler the Wise (in the Southern Saga, Alexandra's lovely rival Queen Jacqueline states that they married, but Alexandra the Fair and the Keats both later contradict this assertion), it is possible that her being named in association with the Hunt's chariot is indicative of her favoured position in his household. It also suggests that he may have left the Cortina with her when he travelled south following the death of Tyler the Wise. In the Southern Saga, he drives another chariot, called the Quattro, presumably given this name because it had four wheels whereas some chariots had three. That he cherished it as jealously as its predecessor is shown by the fact that one of his most bitter quarrels with Alexandra the Fair relates to her appropriation of the Quattro without his permission.

Phyllis the warrior-woman is probably a throwback to the Norse legends of the Valkyries, the armoured maidens who served Odin as his Choosers of the Slain and bore his mead in Valhalla. This would fit with the Hunt's function as Defender of the Dead, which is so dramatically revealed towards the conclusion of the Southern Saga. Sharon the Granger, the true love of the Skelton, must have been the Hunt's housekeeper, custodian of his fortress, Castle Fenchurch (commonly known in the Southern Saga as "the station"). A "grange", in old English, was a remote house or farm: the word had especial connections with a barn or granary. It is therefore probable that she also had especial responsibility for the Hunt's food supplies. The Saga refers repeatedly to her serving him with tea, coffee and nourishment known by the arcane name of pinkwafersangaribaldis.

The most tragic tale in the Southern Saga is that of Sharon's co-custodian, Viv the Desk-Keeper. Although entrusted with the gateway to the Hunt's kingdom, and high in his master's favour, Viv the Desk-Keeper is tempted to betray the Hunt, in a vain attempt to save a person he loves. Even though he repents and dies saving his companions, he pays for his treachery, not only with his life but with eternal banishment from the Hunt's Shining Company, his soul claimed by the Keats. The arbitrary nature of Viv's fate, and its deep injustice, have led some commentators to suggest that this story may not have been part of the original Saga, but was inserted at a later date, as a moral tale written to emphasise the terrible price of treachery even when the sinner repents.

It is also possible that the fate of the Desk-Keeper was included in the Southern Saga as a counterpart to another prominent character in the Legend, Nelson the Host, who in the Northern Saga is Lord of the Free House of the Arms of the Railway, the principal meeting-house of the Hunt and his Company. At the end of the Southern Saga, the same meeting-house reappears as the Gate to Eternal Light, with Nelson the Host in his true guise as its Gate-Keeper. It is at this point in the story that the Carling, the Skelton, Sharon the Granger and Alexandra the Fair all pass through the Gate and out of the Hunt's Shining Company for ever. It is implied that Tyler the Wise and Anne the Cartwright had passed through the Gate some time earlier. Nelson the Host has another counterpart in the Southern Saga in Luigi the Merry, whose hostelry opposite Castle Fenchurch is both the chaste dwelling of Alexandra the Fair and the meeting-house of the Hunt and his Company. Reference is made in the penultimate tale to Luigi the Merry's departure, but it is not clear whether he, too, departs into the eternal light. Most of the Fanfic legends are likewise ambiguous on this point.

In the course of the Sagas, the Hunt and his Company confront a wide variety of representatives of the forces of evil. Among them are the Cale and his witch wife, who imprison Alexandra the Fair in a cold vault from which the Hunt saves her by shattering the ice with one blow of his great weapon Magnum; Gaynor the Shape-Changer; Reginald the Coalman, who captures Queen Jacqueline and her minister George in their fearsome Fortress Gazette; Neary the Seducer, who seeks the love of the Carling; Andy the Man of Fire; the Warren, who ensnares the Hunt in his lair of corruption until he is freed by Tyler the Wise; the Bevan, corrupt retainer of Dark Litton, rival of the Hunt; the Robin and his thralls Jeremy and Adrian, self-styled defenders of animals; Kramer the Killer; the dreaded Crane; Burns the Woman-Slayer, who appears in some Fanfic legends as the relentless persecutor of Alexandra the Fair; Trent the Swimmer; Soaper the Child-Taker; and in the final tale, Hoorsten, the Man of Diamonds. That the Hunt's enemies came from all over Britain is demonstrated by the fact that they appear to include representatives from Scotland (the Mac, also known as the SuperMac), Wales (the Morgan), and Ireland (Lafferty the Entomber).

A few repay closer examination. The Wolf, cunning opponent of the Hunt in his guise as the Lion, outwits the Hunt and Tyler the Wise until he is overcome in their final showdown by the Glen (it is not clear whether this is a reference to a meeting in a forest dell, or whether the Glen is an otherwise unknown member of the Hunt's company). The Mac or SuperMac, senior in rank to the Hunt, plots his downfall and that of Alexandra the Fair until they unite with Queen Jacqueline to expose his corruption.

Two of the Hunt's enemies who also persecute Alexandra the Fair, appear to be united by an ability to travel in time. The first is the Layton, whom Alexandra both suspects of murdering her parents and accuses of shooting her in a time yet to come. The second is the Summers, a dark and sinister figure whose name may represent the eternal struggle between Light and Dark, Day and Night, Life and Death. His eventual death in wintertime at the hand of the Hunt could be a sacrifice to ensure the eventual return of the season that bears his name, like the ancient rituals of the Green Man and the Wicker Man, and in this context his ability to move through time may hint at rebirth and renewal.

The Morgan, whose cunning recalls the witch of the same name who sought King Arthur's destruction, is unquestionably the most dangerous of the Hunt's adversaries in the Northern Saga, all the more so because he rarely confronts the Hunt outright. With diabolical guile, he ensnares and confuses Tyler the Wise with promises of a return to a distant home which rob Tyler of his wisdom until he temporarily deserts the Hunt and his companions. It is possible that in returning to them, and rejecting the Morgan's attempts to suborn him, he passes some kind of mystic test. It is significant that the Morgan is not vanquished, but merely disappears, able at any time to return to seek another victim.

Most sinister of all is the Hunt's greatest adversary, the Keats, Claimer of Souls, who dominates the final third of the Southern Saga. He, too, seeks to seduce the Hunt's company from their leader's side by lies and dissimulation, but he is even more dangerous than the Morgan because he is encircled by an appearance of beauty and innocence and strengthened by diabolical charm. Ultimately he is thwarted when the Hunt sends the Carling, the Skelton, Sharon the Granger and Alexandra the Fair through the Gate to Eternal Light. Yet one might argue that in a sense, the Keats wins as well. He claims the souls of the traitors Viv the Desk-Keeper and Louise the Gardener, and the Hunt eventually triumphs only at the price of leaving himself bereft of everything he loves: he is left all alone, with no-one to care. Certainly the Keats is not destroyed: his final words to the Hunt are "We'll meet again", and many of the Fanfic legends describe his subsequent battles with the Hunt. Evil, like good, is eternal.

In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen, what relevance has the Legend of the Mighty Hunt in our own day and age? The answer, I believe, is that, like all great legends, it is not specific to its time, but universal. The Hunt and his Shining Company, and the enemies they faced, may be no more, but the types they represent are with us still. Because villainy and incompetent authority continue to plague us down the centuries, we still crave heroes who will defend us from the forces of evil and incompetence, and tales of their heroic deeds in the long distant past inspire us to emulate them in the present. While their legends endure, so will the lessons they teach us. Ladies and gentlemen, the Hunt goes on.

_(Applause)._

**THE END**


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